“The Glass Menagerie” takes place in St. Louis, with a mother and her two children, Tom and Laura, it is written by Tennessee Williams. “The Glass Menagerie is a play about coming-of-age. Tom’s maturity is demonstrated by his final decision to leave the family, a decision that is made with the awareness of the inevitable clash between illusion and reality, between reaction and action, and between what life has given him and what he can control” (enotes). Tom is the narrator of the play, and is also a character in it. The play is presented by memories that Tom has. The two children’s father ran off many years ago and has not been in contact with them since. Amanda, the mother, is trying to get Laura a husband, though she is crippled. Amanda refuses to except that her daughter is disabled. She spends her life going between reality and fantasy trying to avoid the problems in the real world. Tom works at a shoe warehouse, and hates his job. He likes to write poems and would like to spend his life doing that. Tom reminds Amanda of his father, and …show more content…
Amanda, Tom and Laura’s mother, lives in her own fantasy world most of the time. Her mind is constantly going between the real world and a false world she has made up in her head. Amanda often does this when her life becomes too difficult to deal with. She reminisces on the years when she was younger, and had many gentlemen callers. Amanda uses this old memory as her new reality. “In The Glass Menagerie, there are enormous differences between Amanda's memories of her girlhood in Blue Mountain and her current life in a Depression-era tenement in St. Louis. Her attempts to ignore these differences can make her look ridiculous, for example when she goes overboard on the dinner for Jim, but they can also create sympathy as you realize how far she has fallen from her glory days in the Mississippi Delta”
In The Glass Menagerie, by Tennessee Williams, we embark on the task of seeing a family living in the post WWII era. The mother is Amanda, living in her own world and wanting only the best for her son, Tom. Tom, a dreamer, tired of Amanda’s overbearing and constant pursuit of him taking care of the family, wants to pursue his own goals of becoming a poet. He is constantly criticized and bombarded by his mother for being unsuccessful. This drives him to drinking and lying about his whereabouts, and eventually at the end of the play, he ends up leaving. An example of Amanda and Tom’s quarrel I when he quotes, “I haven’t enjoyed one bit of this dinner because of your constant directions on how to eat it. It’s you that makes me rush through meals with your hawklike attention to every bit I take.”(302) Laura, on the other hand, is shy and out of touch with reality because of a slight disability, in which she is comfort...
Amanda Wingfield is mother of Tom and Laura. She is a middle-aged southern belle whose husband has abandoned her. She spends her time reminiscing about the past and nagging her children. Amanda is completely dependent on her son Tom for finical security and holds him fully responsible for her daughter Laura's future. Amanda is obsessed with her past as she constantly reminds Tom and Laura of that " one Sunday afternoon in Blue Mountain when she once received seventeen gentlemen callers" (pg.32). The reader cannot even be sure that this actually happened. However, it is clear that despite its possible falsity, Amanda has come to believe it. Amanda also refuses to acknowledge that her daughter Laura is crippled and refers to her handicap as " a little defect-hardly noticeable" (pg.45). Only for brief moments does she ever admit that her daughter is crippled and then she resorts back into to her world of denial and delusion. Amanda puts the weight of Laura's success in life on her son Tom's shoulders. When Tom finally finds a man to come over to the house for diner and meet Laura, Amanda blows the situation way out of proportion. She believes that this gentlemen caller, Jim, is going to be the man to rescue Laura. When in fact neither herself nor Laura has even met this man Jim yet. She tries to explain to Laura how to entertain a gentleman caller; she says-talking about her past " They knew how to entertain their gentlemen callers. It wasn't enough for a girl to be possessed of a pretty face and a graceful figure although I wasn't slighted in either respect.
As Winfield 's wife, Amanda is worthy of love and respect. Amanda is a southern lady, when she was young, she had an attractive appearance and graceful in manner, and her families were also quite rich. These favorable conditions made her the admiration of many men. Still, her final choice was a poor boy. She did not hesitate and bravely to choose her own love. Though her marriage was not as good as she had imagined the happiness of life, and the husband, Winfield meager income also drinking heavily, finally abandoned Amanda and two young children, but she still remembered and loved her husband. Her husband 's weakness did not make Amanda fall down; instead, she was brave enough to support the family, raising and educating of their two young children. Daughter Laura was a disability to close her fantasy world, and she was collection of a pile of glass small animals as partners. Amanda knew Laura sensitive, fragile, she was always in the care and encourages her daughter. Because of her shortcomings, Laura sometimes frustrated and Amanda immediately replied that "I 've told you never, never to use that word. Why, you 're not crippled, you just have a little defect". Amanda for the care of the children was more reflected a mother 's strong from the play that Amanda paid money to send Laura to typing school. She hoped daughter have a better future and married a good man to take care of the family, and encouraged her daughter, prompting her to go out of the glass menagerie to experience her real life, but Amanda placed more expectations for his son Tom because her husband left home, Tom is the only man and the mainstay of the family. She wanted Tom to realize that is a kind of family responsibility, also is a kind of essential social
We all feel unhappiness at some point in our lives. It’s human to feel like you want more or something is not good enough for you. You want more out of life. You want to do something to make you happy. In The Glass Menagerie Tom, Laura, and Amanda Wingfield all expierence unhappiness through out the play in their own way. They are a family but their goals and dreams are quite different from each other. Their dreams and goals lead to their unhappiness because they seem impossible to reach. One reason that holds them back from being happy is the decade they are living in. The story is taking place in the 1940’s right after the great depression. Times are tough so dreams and future goals have to be moved to the back of the to do list while you
Amanda Wingfield was a complex character that encompassed many facets of her personality. She longed to have the life she had as a girl and young woman with gentleman callers and being the center of attention; her reality though, was a much more dismal existence with a son who worked at a factory making little money at a job he despised and a daughter that was as emotionally and physically as fragile the glass figurines her daughter collected. She was a caring mother that wanted to see her children succeed and lead what she believed to be a meaningful and secure life, although her techniques and visions in achieving this were misguided and overbearing. During the play’s snapshot of life, the Great Depression had taken its toll on the family which made Amanda reminisce about her past as a southern belle to escape the pain she felt in her present. She was in constant denial of her daughter’s defect and personality (Roberts). She could not grasp why her daughter was not more like herself in her younger years. She continually badgered Tom to become what she envisioned a man to be and not to chase what she considered silly dreams of adventure. She also had unrealistic expectations that would not be realized for Laura by expecting her to be an outgoing person with a steady stream of gentleman callers (Odak). Amanda’s consistent high expectations made the situation the family was en...
The three family members are adults at the time of this play, struggling to be individuals, and yet, very enmeshed and codependent with one another. The overbearing and domineering mother, Amanda, spends much of her time reliving the past; her days as a southern belle. She desperately hopes her daughter, Laura, will marry. Laura suffers from an inferiority complex partially due to a minor disability that she perceives as a major one. She has difficulty coping with life outside of the apartment, her cherished glass animal collection, and her Victrola. Tom, Amanda's son, resents his role as provider for the family, yearns to be free from him mother's constant nagging, and longs to pursue his own dreams. A futile attempt is made to match Laura with Jim, an old high school acquaintance and one of Tom's work mates.
themselves. Some of the symbols for Tom are the Merchant Marine and the magician’s nailed coffin, while Amanda’s are the yellow dress and her membership to the Daughters of the American Revolution and some of Laura’s are the unicorn and blue roses. Tennessee Williams play has a simple face but the meanings behind the countless and increasingly complex symbols make the play enjoyable the tenth time read. Through the narrator, Tom, we are giving a glimpse into Tennessee Williams’ life as his autobiographical character survives the depression era in St. Louis. I shall explain some of the more obvious symbols and deeper meanings to the key points of this play.
Tom supports his family despite his unhappiness with his lifestyle. He tries to please his mother, Amanda by being the sole supporter of the family, but only gets rewarded by Amanda's constant nagging and distrust. Eventually, Tom finds himself more like his father as he seeks adventure in the movies and hangs out on the fire escape to avoid suffocation of the household. He desperately seeks the life he always desired; the life of adventure. By hanging out on the fire escape, Tom finds a temporary safe haven for Amanda.
Life is a lonely tale of alienation, as Tennessee Williams conveys though his play, “The Glass Menagerie.” Williams surrounds Laura in isolation from a world in which they wish to belong to by using various symbols. The symbolic nature of the motifs hidden within the lines of this play provides meaning to the theme found consistent throughout the play: Individuals are all alone in the world.
Living in the past is Amanda’s way of escaping her pitiful present reality (Knorr). She never forgets to tell Laura and Tom about her receiving seventeen gentlemen callers in Blue Mountain when she was young: "One Sunday afternoon-your mother received-seventeen!-gentlemen callers! Why, sometimes there weren't enough chairs enough to accommodate them all" (Williams 26). She talks about how all her admirers turned out and even though many became successful and could have been better choices, she had chosen their father. It seems that she wants her children to know that she was different before her husband left her. She wants them to know that she was a "catch". The truth remains that she had been economically dependent on her husband. Since her husband left her, her dependency transfers to her son Tom.
The entire play is a family struggling which can be compared to many of our own lives. The play isn't fantasy like at all. It is realistic, and that's what is good about it. Tom was struggling to taking care of his mother and sister, which can be compared, to the way families live today. Laura is disabled and very insecure of it. Amanda is just like any mother, she tries hard to help her children have a secure future. Another hardship for Tom and his family is that their father is no longer in the picture. He abandoned the children at a very young age. These examples can be compared to our own lives. Instead of the play being about people with no problems, it's about "real people." Everyone has problems and struggles, maybe not exactly as Tom's family does, but we can relate with similar problems.
Throughout this story, I believe that the glass menagerie represents a symbol, much as is represents Laura. The glass menagerie is fragile, as is Laura. They are both kind of in the old time, because they don’t go out into the reality of the world. Laura is a very shy girl, and is nervous about being around people she doesn’t really know. When the characters in the story give Laura a chance, we learn that she can actually be charming and the gentleman caller, Jim, also learns that she is a very sympathetic person, but she can’t face what it takes to be in a relationship. When she was telling her mom about the yearbook where Jim used to call her “Blue Roses”, Laura feels drawn to think about him again, but quickly realizes that he is probably
Amanda, like Laura, wants Tom to strive for is full potential and be all that he can be. Their relationship is strained because Tom reminds Amanda of her husband. He just does not quite fit in with the rest of his family. He aspires to travel and see the world. He does not want to just get by; he wants to live and experience life. Amanda sees this in his and acknowledges that he has the same flighty attitude as his father. Mrs Wingfield snaps at her son and exclaims, “Oh, I can see the handwriting on the wall as plain as I see the nose in front of my face! It’s terrifying! More and more you remind me of your father! He was out all hours without explanation—Then left! Goodbye! And me with the bag to hold. He is the major breadwinner in the family. He brings in all the income and if he leaves Amanda and Laura will not be able to make it. Amanda takes it upon herself to mold Tom into the man that she wished her husband was. Of course, he takes it upon himself to be anything but. He spends every night at the movies. Tom uses the movies as a form of escape form his home life and satisfy his urge to leave and explore. He says, “People go to the movies instead of moving.” Tom is more of a realist compared to Amanda’s hopeful view on life. He knows life will never measure up to his mother’s expectations. The world has changed and he feels his mother needs to wake up. His personality is a direct contrast
“The Glass Menagerie” is a play about a fatherless family for whom the youngest and only son, Tom, is the sole provider. The play is Tom’s memory of his family and the events leading up to his departure. He and his mother, Amanda, argue quite frequently in the story, which causes Tom to run off every night and return in the wee hours of the morning for work. After Tom brings home one potential suitor who he didn’t know was engaged, for his sister Laura who cannot seem to get married because of her terrible shyness, his mother chastises him for bringing an engaged man to meet Laura. However in the words of Preston Fambrough, “Amanda is unjust to Tom in blaming him for the failure of her ham-handed campaign to ensure a suitable husband for daughter Laura, unreasonably faulting him for not knowing that the gentleman caller was engaged to be married and forgetting that Tom tried to dissuade her from the ill-fated scheme in the first place” (Fambrough 100). Tom subsequently runs away for being falsely accused and not respected. The play prompts the audience to ask whether or not Tom was justified in leaving his family behind because they didn’t respect him as the main contributor for their wellbeing. Tom is
Amanda’s devotion to her children have driven them away from her. Her high expectations and demands have forced them to seek comfort and safety from other sources. Amanda has become her children harsh reality. Tom and Laura each have their own way of escaping reality. For Tom, he goes off to the movies at night to seek an adventure and also to local bars. For Laura, she listens to music and instead of going to class she goes off to the zoo, the movies, and wanders around aimlessly for hours. Laura also has her glass menageries which she cares deeply about. Although in the play Amanda is her children’s reality, she also has her own way of escaping her own reality.